Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The time we spend apart not discussing sandwiches feels like an eternity!

And here we are again! Wednesday and more sandwiches for our pleasure.

This time around, I visited the Nom Nom Truck, which serves Vietnamese food, specifically the Banh Mi Sandwich.

If you've been reading for awhile, you may remember that I trekked far from the Valley out to Alhambra to sample one of these delicacies (A Five Freeway Adventure, 9/8/10).

But now, I find that I can have those sandwiches closer to me, and on wheels?

Sign me up.

Waiting in line outside of my work (Nom Nom Truck is very popular in LA), I decided I would get the same Banh Mi I ordered before, in order to compare the sandwiches. Receiving my sandwich, I quickly opened it to sample the goodness.

I was greeted with a flaked french roll. Perfectly baked, light and fluffy on the inside, it is such a great choice for this sandwich, and this roll shined through with excellence.

The pork was subtly sweet and very flavorful. It was very delicious, and my only problem with the shredded pork is that a few bites were a little more chewy than is necessary. Maybe cooking for a longer period would reduce the fat content a bit more and allow the meat to fall apart easier, but as it stands, is ot as good as the pork from Banh Mi My-Tho.

The part of the sandwich that I was most disappointed with was the salad on the sandwich. Carrots, lettuce, onions and cucumber, the vegetable I missed the most was the sliced jalapenos.

As I discussed before with my last Banh Mi, the jalapenos had their spicy parts removed, leaving a smoky, mildly spicy flavor behind instead of piercing heat. This flavor is a great contrast to the sweet pork, but sadly was missing here.

The cucumbers on the other had added a great refreshing flavor to the sandwich. And while I didn't enjoy them as much as I would have jalapenos, they were a great choice to partner with the pork.

The competition between Nom Nom and Banh Mi My-Tho was stiff, but in the end I believe Banh Mi My-Tho has the better sandwich.

And so you may be sitting there at work, or at home, dear Reader and imagining yourself sampling one of these delicious sandwiches.

And I ask, why haven't you?

Google Banh Mi in your area and head to a local place to order one today for lunch.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Another day, Another Sandwich in San Diego ladies and gentlemen of DANGER.

This time, my adventures took me to a corner bakery in Ocean Beach: Charlie's Best Bread. A little shop on a street corner with a very small town square feel. I liked the atmosphere of the neighborhood, but would this highly recommended shop make waves with me this week?

Walking into the shop, I was overwhelmed by the smell of bread. Every bit of bread used in this place was freshly baked that day.

After spending a significant amount of time narrowing down to one sandwich from a seemingly endless list of deliciousness, I settled on the pastrami sandwich.

For me, when there is a sandwich you revere so much, one that truly possesses the talents to achieve the status of Danger Sandwich, it is all the more disheartening to find one that is a let down.First and foremost, the positives: The bread really was spectacular. A rye bread that was incredibly fresh, and doughy, with a perfectly even rye flavor It really showed that this had been hand crafted by someone who worked there and not delivered in a bag by some unknown megaconglomerate.

Although, I still feel as though it could have been better for the sandwich overall if it had been toasted.

This sandwich had two types of cheese: swiss and bleu cheese. Both excellent choices. The swiss with its smooth and mild flavor played well with the pungent dry taste of the bleu cheese. I enjoyed these two so much that I didn't even taste the pastrami at all.

No, really, seriously. You couldn't taste the main attraction at all.

I had to tear a piece off of the sandwich just to be able to taste it.

And I should have just left it alone. The meat wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. It lacked a definite taste and I could have been eating plain old ham for all I knew.

Maybe that's why they packed on so much cheese.

So, dear readers, I am asking you now for some recommendations for San Diego.

Have you ever been there? Have you heard of a great sandwich that needs to be tried out? Let me know, I'd like to hold onto hope that my next trip there will be devoid of subpar sandwich tastings.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Last weekend I made my way down to San Diego to celebrate the marriage of two friends of mine (congrats Eric and Wendy), and like any true Sandwichologist, i used this excursion to seek our new delicious sandwiches far from my base of operations.

Scouring the internet for the word on the street, I happened to find stellar reviews on a place called the Brown Bag Deli.

The Brown Bag Deli is truly a local hot spot.

Because you seriously need to be a local to even know where this place is.

After driving back and forth a few times, it was finally spotted, tucked into a corner of a strip mall on an major street in Ocean Beach. The inside of the deli lacked windows and any flair. Obviously it needed no pizazz to attract locals.

A promising sign, indeed.I ordered the Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich with the works on Foccacia bread. This sandwich was piled high with the fixings and was quite a challenge to even take the first bite.

Seems to be a pretty great sandwich already, right?

Well, let's discuss what went wrong.

The bread is really the main culprit here.

Focaccia should be a golden colored bread. Maybe even a slight crisp on the outside with a nice soft interior. It should be able to support a decent sandwich without being too tough.

The focaccia at Brown bad was still doughy. It's as if someone took it out of the oven ten minutes early. No golden color, no flavor, and practically raw. Disappointing at best.

The turkey was bland, a bit too moist, and too thickly cut for being deli meat.

The "works" were the only bright spot in this sandwich. Lettuce, onion, banana peppers, avocado, jalapenos, mustard, and mayo worked for this sandwich and really gave it the only life that the sandwich had.

If the turkey and bread had been better, this may have been a delicious sandwich, but sadly, it was not meant to be.

Next week though, I tackle another sandwich from my time in San Diego, so be sure to return for more DANGER!